Delhi Cops use Facebook to Nab Traffic Offenders

In a classic case of police ingenuity, the Delhi Police has started a campaign of sorts to rein in traffic offenders in the city reports The New York Times. The original 'Delhi Police' fan page on Facebook was intended to be a forum for the police to interact with other Delhiites via the social networking platform. However, some brilliant Facebook users had a different idea.




The Delhi police, in the face of the current preparations for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, is seriously short staffed and its traffic department only has about 5,000 personnel to mange the city of 12 million. This has obviously led to a highly complex traffic problem. In the face of this, Delhi netizens started posted images of traffic offenders caught breaking the law complete with images of their vehicle and them indulging in the act. So far, the traffic police claim to have booked over 650 offenders using this technique!



While this may be a great idea to rein in traffic offenders, we wonder if the Delhi police can move this idea forward and apply it in a more secure manner. Posting registration numbers and photographs of offenders in a public forum doesn't seem to be an ideal way to go about this. What do you think?